Defensive rush pain to Geno Smith, Jets

Author(s):

Jeff Howe

FOXBORO — A game’s worth of defensive pressure aided the Patriots in Thursday’s fourth-quarter smackdown of quarterback Geno Smith and the Jets.

Of course, Smith’s three interceptions could be chalked up as self-inflicted wounds, but as always, more goes into it than a simple poor throw. There were actually three other passes in the final quarter that were batted by the defense, so the Patriots’ ability to eventually finish the job seemed like a foregone conclusion.

In all, the Pats forced four turnovers in their 13-10 victory, and Rob Ninkovich also forced a fumble that the Jets recovered. The Patriots generated consistent pressure on Smith, and mistakes followed at the most crucial time of the game.

As a result, Bill Belichick’s Pats improved to 18-0 when amassing at least four takeaways against zero giveaways. However, their margin of victory in the previous 17 games was 22.8 points, and this was only the third time in those 18 games when they won by less than 10 points.

The lesson? The offense badly needed the defense to excel, and that side of the ball believes it can do it more often this season, whether or not Tom Brady and Co. need it to lock up another game.

“I’m very proud,” cornerback Alfonzo Dennard said. “That’s the thing that coach always tells us about, go out there, try to pick the ball off, try to cause fumbles and just get turnovers. That’s what we did.”

The interceptions, by themselves, were all different, though not absent of the common denominator of pressure and confusion. On the first pick, Chandler Jones created pressure off the edge to force Smith to slide to his left, where Vince Wilfork and Tommy Kelly restricted his chance to escape. Smith’s ill-advised pass was tipped by Kyle Arrington and intercepted by Aqib Talib.

Jones lined up inside before the second interception, and stunted behind Wilfork and Michael Buchanan to create late pressure to Smith’s blind side. Wilfork pushed through the middle into Smith’s face, and his throw went short and was intercepted by Dennard.

There was no pressure before the third interception, though the Patriots used a rare three-man rush, as the Jets tried to traverse the field without any timeouts in the final minute. Talib had Devin McCourty shading the top half of the zone on receiver Stephen Hill’s side, and it was easy for Talib to intercept another underthrown pass.

The Pats took advantage of some obvious rookie miscues, but there was a carryover effect from earlier in the game when Jones and Ninkovich provided constant bursts of penetration. The rush actually got off to a pedestrian start, but things intensified after Jones and Buchanan were the bread on a Smith sandwich, a hit that drew a personal foul. That might have set the tone.

The most impressive stretch came over a span of seven dropbacks in the second quarter, when the Patriots manufactured three sacks, two throwaways and one quarterback hit. They blitzed twice in that span and used different pressure points between Jerod Mayo and Brandon Spikes.

The Patriots believed it carried through the game.

“Anytime you can get pressure on the quarterback, he’ll make quick decisions,” Kelly said. “When you’re dealing with a rookie quarterback, you want to put as much pressure on him as possible, and that was the plan, to hit him as much as possible, rush him to make his decisions.”

Smith made the smart plays early by dumping it off, but there was more of an urgency when the Jets trailed in the fourth quarter. The Patriots continued to attack and used different fronts, whether it was a four-man line, a 3-4 look or a 4-3 over front, and the changes forced Smith to think his way through his reads, especially when his gambles were failing in the final quarter.

That’s how the Patriots’ thorough game plan served as the difference with the outcome at stake.